This is going to be fuuuuun. And yes, print does ♥ digital.

Printer’s Ball 2010

Installations by Megan Geckler remind me of similar ones I’ve seen using masking tape. Megan’s have a more sculptural quality and use flagging tape, which is basically plastic ribbon that construction workers use to mark out space. I can only imagine how spectacular something like this would be times ten in scale. I’m thinking like Christo & Jeanne-Claude huge. God that would be so awesome. Via COLOURlovers and Design Milk.

Phew! You know what I didn’t manage to get done this week? BLOGGING. Between moving (tomorrow, in fact) and the usual level of craziness is a total game-killer for me. Next week isn’t looking too promising either because I have six days ahead of me without regular access to internet. (At that point, it will have been three weeks since I requested a service transfer from at&t. They must have some kind of switch-flipping Czar over there; his talented fingers are clearly in prime demand cause getting on their schedule is nigh impossible. AHEM.)

So let me do this list-style for now, if I may, cause it cuts down on time.

• 10 Tips for Better Writing. Great ideas here for switching up your sentence structure, flow, and add more depth. Fellow bloggers can relate to the constant struggle of finding new ways to describe how awesome/pretty/fun/cool things are. Eventually I start to sound canned and less sincere after awhile, so I’m happy for some tips to push my words more.

• My recent COLOURlovers posts here and here.

• Those lovely gardens up there are THE SEXIEST landscape design I have ever seen. Holy moly, more plants! More plants everywhere. All of the times.

• Who’s watching the Mad Men premiere this weekend?! Get your fix on the show and 1960s culture with this blog. Natasha’s also just released her book, aptly titled, Mad Men Unbuttoned.

See youse guys sometime next week, I’m sure I’ll be dying to post something just as soon as I can manage it!

Side A

Side B

It’s always sad when a friend moves away, right? Recently my friend Ina had to move back to Germany after spending the last year in Chicago. But before she left, she made a mixtape. Not just any mixtape mind you, she typed the track listing on a typewriter, screenprinted 20 copies and then folded them into envelopes to house the burned CD. I just thought it was a really exceptional and sweet take on a goodbye present. And she’s posted the songs so now you can download them too.

1. The Bigger the Figure • Louis Prima
2. Horchata // Vampire Weekend
3. The Man Who Sold His Beard • a Hack and a Hacksaw
4. Your Rocky Spine • Great Lake Swimmers
5. Sounder • This Could Mean Blood
6. James’ 2nd Haircut • Cairbou
7. Little Secret • Passion Pit
8. Zebra • Beach House
9. Winning a Battle, Losing the War • Kings of Convenience
10. Unattainable • Little Joy
11. The Ills • Mayer Hawthorne
12. Let’s Get Out of this Country • Camera Obscura
13. Petey’s Song • Jarvis Cocker
14. You + I • Wilco + Feist
15. Kokomo • Ben Kweller & Adam Green
16. Too Much • Bonaparte
17. ONE • Yeaseayer
18. Ich Moechte Leben • Wolfgang Mueller
19. Furr • Blitzen Trapper
20. Home • Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Read and see more about Ina’s projects and collaborations here, here and here. She’s also just opened her online store too.

It’s Pitchfork weekend here in Chicago and with it comes Flatstock 26, the usual gig-poster freakout fair. This year though, two of the biggest names in posters, Aesthetic Apparatus and Delicious Design League did something unique. Aside from participating in Flatstock as usual, they put together a superb poster collab, curated and hosted by The Post Family. AA and DDL traded design files back and forth for months and shared printing duties that’s resulted some epic one-of-a-kind work. Cantankerous Hellfire is up through the next three weeks. Between this event, Flatstock, and the Printer’s Ball that’s happening in two weeks, poster and printmaking enthusiasts should have no trouble finding some truly rad work in this city.

I love it when my friends impress the hell out of me with their awesome work. In this particular case, it’s a project is en pointe from top-to-bottom. Ten empty storefronts in Wicker Park/Bucktown now have artist inhabitants for the next four months thanks to Make Believe, Firebelly Design, and Pivotal Promotions. Not only have artists been allowed to move into a space to use as their own canvas for MONTHS, in a very high traffic area, but it’s a juried contest with a cash prize of $5,500. (Determined by free and public voting which anyone can do here). As we know, art/design just get no money these days, so the fact that there is some compensation incentive in such an accessible venue is just amazing. Shop, eat, drink and look at art. Perfect.

And the work IN the windows? Just wow. My girls, Indo Projects, snapped up my vote for sure.

These ladies pulled off this incredible feat under incredible parameters. They had just three days to find the cups, of which there’s several hundreds, and five days to build and install. At it’s most basic, their installation takes mundane, dirty, and senseless waste and makes it beautiful. But on a deeper level, it’s calling our accelerated pace sharply into focus and trying to promote a return to a simpler pace and slower, more responsible commerce.

Learn more about their window and vote here.